# OpenTelemetry Has Graduated... Now what?

DevFeed: [OpenTelemetry Has Graduated... Now what?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/opentelemetry-has-graduated-now-what-32579.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://opentelemetry.io/blog/2026/otel-grad-now-what/>)

Author: OpenTelemetry Authors; Docs CC BY

Published: 2026-07-15T18:59:02Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Blog on OpenTelemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/blog-on-opentelemetry.md>)

Topics: [OpenTelemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/opentelemetry.md>), [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/telemetry.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [vendor lock-in](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/vendor-lock-in.md>), [Instrumentation](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/instrumentation.md>), [Traces](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/traces.md>)

Tags: [cncf](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cncf.md>), [instrumentation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/instrumentation.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [opentelemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/opentelemetry.md>), [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/telemetry.md>), [traces](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/traces.md>), [tracing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tracing.md>), [vendor-lock-in](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vendor-lock-in.md>)

## AI overview

This article discusses OpenTelemetry's CNCF graduated status, its history as a unified standard for traces, logs, and metrics, and the role of standardized APIs, language implementations, and the Collector in reducing vendor lock-in.

## Source excerpt

In case you missed it: OpenTelemetry (OTel) has officially achieved CNCF graduated status! It now stands proudly alongside amazing open source projects such as Kubernetes and Prometheus, to name just a few. It's been a long journey, and we're very excited... But, now what? To understand where we're going, it's important to understand where we came from. History In the not-so-distant past, telemetry signals were not standardized. This meant telemetry formats differed from tool to tool, with each telemetry vendor creating and maintaining its own instrumentation libraries. Vendor lock-in was a huge problem: If you wanted to switch vendors, you had to strip out the previous vendor's libraries from your code and replace them with the new vendor's libraries. As a result, switching vendors was a nontrivial task.